Salt Trade

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Re: Salt Trade

Postby Stuart » 5:23 pm

Ajai wrote:The Saka or Scythians could be responsible for bringing apples to Britain. The birthplace of apples is in Kazakhstan according to some Oxford research team or other.

I'm not seduced by this. Who would have predicted that apple orchards would originate from a region of steppes, taigas, mountains and deserts?

When something is claimed to be from a far-away but reasonably civilised country, that generally means "we don't know". Kazakhstan is a typical example of such a place.
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Re: Salt Trade

Postby hvered » 12:19 pm

You may be right overall, Stuart, but not necessarily. There's a lamentable tendency to dismiss out of the way places but remember they weren't always out of the way. Remote areas were connected to the Silk Road if not squarely placed on it.

[There are some people who think the Arthurian cycle was brought to this country by hordes from the east (Alans, Scythians and such). The Arthurian legend seems to have been reworked by the Welsh but has more of a Middle Eastern or Arabian Nights feel about it. ]
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Re: Salt Trade

Postby Iona » 8:54 pm

hvered wrote:[There are some people who think the Arthurian cycle was brought to this country by hordes from the east (Alans, Scythians and such). The Arthurian legend seems to have been reworked by the Welsh but has more of a Middle Eastern or Arabian Nights feel about it. ]

That doesn't sound quite right, the figure of Arthur aka the Great Bear seems to be universal but the stories have quite localised settings.

It's likely that the tales we're familiar with became definitive versions after they were written down rather than passed on orally.
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Re: Salt Trade

Postby Penny » 10:40 pm

Iona wrote: the figure of Arthur aka the Great Bear seems to be universal but the stories have quite localised settings.

It's likely that the tales we're familiar with became definitive versions after they were written down rather than passed on orally.

The legendary break-up of the Round Table centres around an adder that bit the ankle of a knight who killed it, thereby bringing about the last battle and the death of Arthur. Putting the blame on a snake seems a specific reference to the Genesis story but the Arthurian cycle may also have represented an astrological cycle.
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Re: Salt Trade

Postby Boreades » 11:40 pm

Penny wrote:
Iona wrote: the figure of Arthur aka the Great Bear seems to be universal but the stories have quite localised settings.

It's likely that the tales we're familiar with became definitive versions after they were written down rather than passed on orally.

The legendary break-up of the Round Table centres around an adder that bit the ankle of a knight who killed it, thereby bringing about the last battle and the death of Arthur. Putting the blame on a snake seems a specific reference to the Genesis story but the Arthurian cycle may also have represented an astrological cycle.


Yes. Just as snakes and serpents are symbolic of knowledge and awareness (see the medical icons and the Rod of Asclepius), any intervention by a snake is symbolic of a raising of consciousness, or the end of one cycle and the start of the next cycle.
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Re: Salt Trade

Postby Boreades » 10:48 pm

The Scythians were Celts that had emigrated from the west to the east, only to become part of the Roman Empire, and then sent west again by their new masters.

Such kharma!
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